Persecution Blog

"I Felt Fire"

VOM Newsletter readers will recognize the face of Umar Mulinde from VOM's June newsletter. He has been threatened and  burned with acid, yet he continues to follow Christ. That newsletter article was co-written by Gary Lane of CBN news.

Last week CBN posted this follow-up interview with Umar by Scott Ross. When you watch the interview you will be encouraged by Umar's faithfulness in spite of what he has suffered, and challenged by him to share the gospel with Muslims around the world.

Thank you to CBN News for granting permission for us to post this interview online.

Prison Time Just for Asking

How many non-Christians do you know who would be willing to go to prison just to ask a question about Jesus?

A few weeks ago, I was meeting with a VOM-sponsored evangelist who lives and works in the West Bank. He had been meeting with a young Muslim man from one of the Palestinian refugee camps once a week for several months, and the 25-year-old man’s life was changing before his eyes. As a boy, “Nisar” hated Christians and had thrown rocks at the evangelist’s church. But after studying Christianity in his comparative religions course while he was in university had raised questions in Nisar’s mind.

"Nasir" and the evangelist

Over a period of months, Nisar and the evangelists studied what the Quran and Bible said about Jesus.  After sever l months, Nisar decided to ask his mother, who was very religious, about some of the things he had learned. Nisar caught her in the kitchen one evening and brought up questions about verses in the Quran (Surah 2:87-89) that talk about the Torah, the Bible, Moses and Jesus. She avoided answering and accused him of drinking or taking drugs. Suddenly, she started acting different toward her son.

The next day, police showed up at the house and took Nisar to prison. His mother had arranged to have Nisar jailed. At a brief court hearing, the judge told Nisar he was charged with blasphemy. Nisar was thrown in a cell with the worst of the worst — murderers and rapists. By sending him to jail, his mother and father thought they could scare him away from ever questioning his faith again. Instead, “they didn’t change me,” Nasir said. “I saw that my parents, my family, no one loved me.”

He spent the next seven days in jail, and the only person who came to visit him was the evangelist.  The day he was released, he went straight to the church, where the evangelist encouraged him. Nasir eventually returned home, but he continues to meet secretly with the evangelist. His family wants to know where he is at all times. To meet with me in June, Nasir had a friend pick him up and drop him off so his parents wouldn’t know where he was going.

Though he spent time in prison just for asking about Christianity, he hasn’t rejected it. What he has rejected is the faith of his family: Islam. Nisar is not yet ready to give up everything and turn his life over to Jesus, but he’s on the way. The Holy Spirit is working on him.

His example shows how crucial VOM’s long-term support of evangelists is in tough areas like the West Bank. Changing the minds and hearts of people who’ve grown up with one way of thinking isn’t easy, and it takes a huge investment of time and love. And once convinced of the truth of Jesus, Muslims or others who want to follow Jesus must consider the huge cost they are likely to pay.

Please pray for Nisar. Pray that he will decide he is ready to follow Christ and be ready to pay the cost, if necessary. Pray for our evangelist, also, as he guides him along this path.

Dory P. has worked with VOM for six years. She grew up in Ecuador, met her husband while working with another mission organization, and now lives in Oklahoma. Between Dory, her husband and two-year-old son, they share five passports. Dory helps tell the stories of the persecuted through VOM's newsletter, and her husband serves with VOM's international department.

Rescued from Darkness

Have you ever heard a Christian say “I don’t really have a testimony”? 

I have.

This especially seems to be a common saying among people who have grown up as Christians or in the church. I’m tired of hearing this. However, I have been saved since I was four years old, so if you are one of these people, I understand where you are coming from.

The testimonies we read about in VOM’s newsletter are powerful, especially the conversion testimonies. Maybe you have heard stories of Muslims who have had dreams or visions of Jesus. Maybe you know a Christian who had a troubled past and was radically transformed. In our September newsletter you will read about a woman who escaped from North Korea while trying to commit suicide for the fifth time. These people have been miraculously saved.

Maybe that’s not your story though.

Here’s the problem: sometimes we can use the fact that we think we don’t have a testimony as an excuse not to reach people. We think that surely someone would be better at evangelism who can relate to what other people are going through. A former Muslim can reach the Muslims, a former drug addict can witness to someone fighting addictions, a former prostitute can reach the prostitutes. That’s fair. However, I have two arguments against that: One, who does that leave you to reach? And two, is that Biblical?

Matthew 28:19, the passage on the Great Commission, makes no concession for the types of people you should witness to. It says to make disciples of ALL nations.

This is the great news: If you have ever thought you didn’t have much of a testimony, you need to know right now that’s a lie.

Have you believed in Christ and accepted his forgiveness? Then you have the most powerful testimony and story to share that has ever been told. You have been rescued from the depths of sin. You are freed from being a slave to selfishness, fear and pride. Death no longer rules over you. You have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light. You have been adopted as a son or daughter of the King of Kings. That is your story. And that is the most important testimony of every believer.

Having understood this, it also compels us to love lost people generously and without judgment. Each one of us could be a drug addict, a prostitute, a Hindu, or even a persecutor, without Christ.

Unless we truly believe we were rescued from the deepest darkness, we will never truly appreciate the glorious light we have been given. And until we begin to grasp how lost and wicked we are without Christ, we won’t fully appreciate His sacrifice for us. It could be that some of the reason why our brothers and sisters in closed nations are so on fire for evangelism is that they understand their story. We can do the same. We don’t have to wait for an experience that is novel-worthy. You too, have been miraculously saved.

"Grace Taylor" serves on the staff of VOM. She was first introduced to the ministry of VOM by her parents and grandparents, who received the VOM newsletter, and through the VOM book Jesus Freaks. She has served in 12 different countries and is passionate about helping expand God’s Kingdom throughout the nations of the world.

"You Should Read Them"

Since the beginning of our ministry, VOM has encouraged Christians in the West to write letters of encouragement to prisoners. Over the years VOM has sent out lists of prisoners, pre-printed postcards to send and even encouraged readers to put a stick of gum inside their letters to a particular prisoner.

But do those letters matter? YES!

Again and again we hear from released prisoners the difference that the letters make and the impact they have. Stories like this one, excerpted from Captive in Iran, written by former prisoners for Christ in Iran, Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh:

"While our guard was alone with us, he asked, "Are you the two Christian prisoners who get all the mail?"

"Yes, we are. How many letters are there?" Marziyeh asked.

"There's a whole roomful of letters and postcards, with dozens more arriving every day. Several soldiers open and read them, and then report the contents to the authorities."

"What do the letters say?"

"Many of them are in English, and most of them say the same thing. They talk about the sheep and the shepherd, they say they are praying for you, they encourage you to keep resisting, they send you Bible verses, things like that. Some people send drawings."

"Since they don't give them to us, maybe at least you should read them and benefit from their contents," Marziyeh suggested.

Maryam and Marziyeh saw first-hand the difference letters make, and they credit all of the mail received at Evin prison as one factor in their release from prison.

VOM equips you to write letters to Christians in prison in two ways. We have created an online tool at www.PrisonerAlert.com where you can compose your letters online, and they will be translated into the language of the prisoner. We also offer Prisoner Letter Writing kits that will help you to write with pen and ink to prisoners around the world. We often pray that God will encourage Christians in prison. Writing letters is one way that we can be a part of the answer to that prayer.

As Maryam and Marziyeh's story proves, it DOES make a difference.

Excerpted from Captive in Iran by Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh. You can purchase a copy of Captive in Iran through VOMBooks.com. You can also watch a video of Maryam and Marziyeh talking specifically about the letters that arrived for them at the prison, or the complete video of their time speaking to VOM staff.

Wolfgang Haede on the Church in Turkey

On Friday we brought you the interview with Semse Aydin, the widow of Necati Aydin, a Turkish martyr for Christ. Today we bring you the other half of that video, an interview with Wolfgang Haede, Semse and Necati's brother-in-law.

Haede is the author of Faithful Until Death: The Story of Necati Aydin, A Turkish Martyr for Christ , which tells the story of Necati's pathway to faith in Christ and his zeal to see Muslims--especially members of his own family--also come to know Jesus as Savior and King.

 

Order your copy of Faithful Until Death at www.VOMBooks.com. When you order the book right now, you can also receive a FREE documentary about the killing of Necati and two other Christian men in 2007.

You can read an excerpt from the book here.

Semse Aydin on Forgiveness

The day after her husband was brutally murdered in the offices of a Christian publishing house in Turkey, Semse Aydin announced on national TV that she had forgiven the men who committed the murder.

In this video interview, Semse talks about forgiveness and how God enabled her to forgive.

 

For more on this amazing story, read Faithful Until Death: The Story of Necati Aydin, A Turkish Martyr for Christ by Wolfgang Haede. The book tells the story of the life and death of Necati Aydin, who was Wolfgang’s brother-in-law. Order your copy at www.VOMBooks.com. When you order the book this month, you can also receive a FREE documentary about the killing of Necati and two other Christian men in Turkey in 2007.

Egypt: Demyana

The following true story comes from Stef, the children’s ministry of Stichting De Ondergrondse Kerk (SDOK), VOM’s sister mission in the Netherlands. The story took place before the current unrest in Egypt, but it gives a glimpse of what life is like there for Muslim converts to Christ and children of families who are in danger.

Demyana is an ordinary ten-year-old who loves nice colors and all the other things that girls of her age like. Something less ordinary about her is that Demyana is always at home. Youʼll never have any problem finding Demyana at home if you want to go to her place and play, because sheʼs never outside. Or at least, you’d never find her away from home if you knew where to visit her — and not many do, because where she lives has to be kept secret.

Demyana lives in a small apartment somewhere in Egypt with her mom, two little sisters and a little brother. As long as nobody knew that her dad had become a Christian, they had no trouble — but that changed a couple of years ago.

A young girl in Egypt.

Demyana’s father
Brought up as a Muslim, Demyanaʼs dad studied the national language, Arabic, at a university. He got to know the Quran very well and was eager to prove that it was a much better holy book than the Bible. So he asked the neighbor’s daughter for a Bible. He began to read at Matthew, and he was so deeply impressed that he wanted to start following the Lord Jesus. From that time on, he went to work in a foreign country. He was baptized abroad and later came back to Egypt to live. And he married an Egyptian Christian girl. He told absolutely nobody in his family that he had become a Christian.

Betrayed
But somehow or other, someone must have found him out, because one day Demyanaʼs dad got an invitation to go and have dinner with his relatives. Suddenly, his relatives stood all around him and started yelling, ‘Youʼre an apostate!’ (meaning one who has ‘fallen away’ from Islam). They beat him up and locked him in a room for four days to try to get him to deny Jesus Christ. When that failed to work, they dragged him to a car. Demyanaʼs dad thought, “This is the end for me.”

Miraculous
At a police checkpoint along the way, the relatives pointed a knife at him and hissed that he had to keep his mouth shut. But Demyanaʼs dad told the police officer that he was being abducted. The policeman ordered him out of the car, slapped handcuffs on his wrists and assured the relatives that he would make sure this apostate would be suitably punished. He led Demyanaʼs dad away with him. But once they had rounded a corner, the policeman took the cuffs off, handed him money for a bus fare and said, “Flee!”

Moved away
One night, Demyana overheard her parents talking about the danger they were in. Sheʼs often been afraid since that night. Now, she understands why they keep moving from one apartment to another and why her father acts so nervously. Eventually, her dad managed to escape the country — leaving Demyana, her mother, and the three younger siblings behind in a sparse, cramped apartment.

Always at home
Demyana misses her dad terribly. Happily, he is able to call them on the phone often. But in every call, he tells her mom, ‘Never step outside; itʼs far too risky!’ So Mom and the children keep indoors. They often read the Bible, pray and play with each other. Mom is trying to teach them some English. They make drawings to put on the walls to make it not so gray — but the drawings are not happy ones. They draw sad dolls and planes flying away that tell the story of four children who want nothing more than to get out of that situation. If Mom is feeling brave, they might go to church at Christmas. But however boring her life might be, Demyana is quite sure that sheʼs safe in Godʼs care and that He will never ever abandon them!

VOM’s Kids of Courage resources help parents and educators teach children ages 5 to 13 about persecuted Christians around the world, and provide opportunities for children to serve and pray for them. www.kidsofcourage.com

An Invisible Force

“If Abu wanted to be a Christian, he’d have to do it somewhere else. We surrounded his house, ready to force him out and burn it.

“As we got closer, we could hear him talking. Had he gathered others to help him? we wondered. Then we could hear that he was praying for the entire village and asking Jesus to forgive us for what we were about to do! This made us even angrier, so twenty-five of us rushed toward his house to apprehend him. But there was an invisible force that would not let any of us enter his house, and we were frightened away.

“When I got home, I could not sleep. I kept thinking about Abu’s prayer. Finally at three in the morning, I went back to Abu’s house. I asked him to tell me about Jesus. After three hours of talking with Abu, I asked Jesus to forgive me, and I surrendered my life to him. I rushed to my house and shared what happened to me with my wife, and she also became a Christian, along with my children.”

Within days, Idris Miah, the Bangladeshi believer who told this story, faced a test. He was fired from his job, and his children were forced out of school. Yet he says that he still has joy, for he has Jesus in his heart.

Often we can’t choose our life context, but we can choose our attitude and response. We can always make those choices, despite the circumstances. So when, like Abu, we stand at the brink of disaster, will we choose a prayerful, Christlike response, or will we give in to panic and distress? It is impossible for others, despite their best efforts, to make us angry or stressed. We make those choices ourselves. In the same way, we can choose to imitate Christ in our response to opposition. Who knows what will come of it? Ask God for help today to choose the proper response to any trying situation.

This is one of the readings from the book, Extreme Devotion, available from VOM’s online bookstore. You can also receive devotional thoughts daily via email. Sign up here.

Samuel Lamb: Safely Home

The Voice of the Martyrs joins Christians from across China and around the world in celebrating the life and legacy of Samuel Lamb (Lin Xingiao in Chinese), who died Saturday in Guangzhou at the age of 88.

Pastor Samuel Lamb (1924-2013)

Lamb was one of the best-known leaders of the Chinese house church movement. Numerous VOM staff members have visited his church in Guangzhou, as have hundreds of foreigners since the church was founded in 1979, the year after Lamb finished serving a 20-year prison sentence for his Christian work.

Lamb was born in 1924 in southern China. As the son of a Baptist pastor, he preached his first sermon at age 19.

When the Communist Party took control of China in 1949 under Mao Zedong, Christians were forced underground or forced to submit to Party control. Those that refused were interrogated, arrested, tortured, imprisoned or even killed. Samuel Lamb became one of the best known of these persecuted church leaders.

Pastor Samuel Lamb with a tape duplication machine delivered to him by VOM workers.

Lamb first tasted prison in 1955, when he was sentenced to serve 18 months. He was imprisoned again in 1958, this time receiving a 20-year sentence. Part of his sentence was spent serving forced labor in coal mines, where working conditions were deplorable and many prisoners died. Lamb would later talk about how God preserved his life even in the midst of such dangerous work.

When visitors from the West visited Lamb’s church in Guangzhou, he often cited the statistics of how the church in China had grown despite persecution:

“Before I was arrested, my church had only 200 members,” he told VOM workers on one visit. “After I was released from prison the first time, I found the church had grown to 900 members! Then came the confiscation of [books and equipment in] the church. Before the government confiscated our church, the church numbered 900 members. After the confiscation, the church had
grown to 2,000 members! Persecution good for church!”

Lamb often talked about the millions of people coming to Christ in spite of the persecution and the communists efforts to close down churches, saying, “More persecution, more growing!”

“Pastor Samuel Lamb has lived a life of Kingdom faithfulness,” said VOM spokesperson Todd Nettleton, “and now he’s arrived safely home. He’s been a partner in VOM’s work in China for many years, and a great example of what it means to follow Christ, no matter the cost.”

The Voice of the Martyrs continues to work with Christians facing persecution in China, including two men recently imprisoned for opening a Christian book store.

When Does Forgiveness Come?

For Agnes, forgiveness was a long time in coming. Agnes is a Christian widow, living in northern Nigeria. In 2004, her shop-keeper husband was caught in a religious riot in Kano. Muslim rioters entered his shop and shot him with arrows. Bleeding, with arrows hanging from his chest, he ran home. The mob chased him and broke down the door. He was killed in front of Agnes and his four kids, who were barely able to convince the mob not to kill them, too.

After the riot, Agnes stayed in the community. She had nowhere else to go. When she saw her husband’s attackers on the street, she crossed to the other side. She was able to move on with her life, but she still resented the men who had taken her husband away.

In January of this year, Agnes was invited to a prayer conference through The Voice of the Martyrs in Nigeria. She spent three days with several other widows and some trained facilitators. They listened to teachings on several subjects over the three days, including forgiveness. They also spent time in prayer every day.

While praying with a group of women on the second day, Agnes felt a nudging in her spirit. She realized she needed to forgive her husband’s killers all these years later. She prayed, “Father, I need to forgive. Help me to know how to do so.” As soon as she prayed, she felt a shift in her emotions. Suddenly, she had compassion for her persecutors, and she felt sorry for them.

Today, when she sees the men on the street, she doesn’t need to cross to the other side. She can walk by calmly and even offer a greeting. Her attitude has changed so much that she was able to forgive another man who stole from her. She was given a rooster to raise for an income, and a Muslim man stole the rooster, sold it, and donated the money for construction of a new mosque. But with her new-found compassion in Christ, Agnes can smile at the man when she sees him.

For some, forgiveness is a long process. For others, it’s quick. For Agnes, it took almost 10 years for her to reach forgiveness, but now that she has, it’s a practiced habit.

YOUR TURN: In the comments, share a time in your own life where you had to forgive someone. Was it a long process or did it happen instantly for you?